Max Weinberg Flipping Out in the Hollywood Hills

SELLER: Max and Rebecca Weinberg
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,399,000
SIZE: 2,916 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Anyone who pays embarrassingly close attention the celebrity real estate scene knows that for the last 5 or so years big shit drummer Max Weinberg and his wifey Rebecca–not to be confused with style maven Patricia Field's Emmy winning long term ladee-friend Rebecca Weinberg–are prolific flippers of high priced properties for which they paid big bucks and quickly sold, usually with only a slim profit. It should come as no surprise then that the real estate fickle Weinbergs recently flipped the sleek but warm Hollywood Hills contemporary they purchased in February of 2009 back on the market with an asking price of $3,399,000.

From 1974 to 1989 Mister Weinberg banged on the skins in Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen's famed E Street Band. In 1993 he accepted the role as the bandleader of The Max Weinberg 7 for the now defunct New York City based Late Night with Conan O'Brien chat show. When "The Boss" reformed the E Street Band in 1999 Mister Weinberg got on The Boss's boat and somehow managed to work out a complicated touring and recording schedule that allowed him to keep his "day job" on Late Night....

When he was hired to replace Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien decamped to the west coast where he paid $10,750,000 for a newly constructed 6 bedroom and 8.5 pooper pad in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Mister O'Brien famously brought much of his New York City based staff to California with him including Mister Weinberg who became the leader of the not very creatively named Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band. While the television gig would require Mister Weinberg to be in Los Angeles for long stretches of time he and the wifey maintained their long time primary residence in the upscale community of Red Bank, NJ.

When the couple purchased the glass and wood Hollywood Hills house they just flipped back on the market it was hardly their first foray into the high end real estate scene in Los Angeles. No siree Bob, butter beans. These two, according to property records and previous reports, had been buying and selling posh properties in some of Tinseltown's finer zip codes since at least the mid-2000s.

In 2005 the real estate mad pair paid $5,823,550 for one of a trio of houses designed by noted Los Angeles architect John Byers in 1928 on Palisades Beach Road in Santa Monica. The Weinbergs sold the 3 bedroom and 3.5 pooper property that includes a separate 2 bedroom guest house in the spring of 2007 for $6,400,000. The property, now owned by race car driver/advertising executive Tomy Drissi and his abstract artist wife Lacy according to property records, appears to be currently available as a rental with a rate of $40,000 per month.

In July of 2006 those real estate crazy Weinbergs paid $7,028,070 for a 8,085 square foot contemporary home at 1345 Vista Moraga in the guard gated Moraga Estates area of Brentwood. The property records are twisted and perplexing as all get out but it appears to Your Mama that the transaction also included a vacant lot across the street and a rugged 31.66 acre lot at the tippy top of Moraga Drive. The Weinbergs quickly flipped the property–or properties–back on the market at $8,200,000 and records show they unloaded the 6 bedroom and 6.5 pooper modern mansion, which we're not sure they ever even even occupied, in March of 2007 for $7,900,000. The peeps at Redfin show that the properties were sold–again as a group–in April of 2009 for just $2,908,000, a strange and inexplicably low number. In early 2010, the Weinberg's former low slung modern mansion in the Moraga Estates was again listed for sale by the current owner(s) with a price tag of $13,900,000. The property was de-listed just a few months later and, as might be expected, it's not clear to Your Mama if the most recent listing was just for the house or for the house and the two other parcels that have repeatedly been sold with it.

In March of 2007 the Weinbergs were back at the real estate rodeo in Los Angeles when they shelled out $8,650,000 for a 1.71 acre spread with a 5,636 square foot Marmol Radziner designed contemporary crib at 1288 Lago Vista Drive in the Beverly Hills Post Office area. Property records reveal that the itchy footed couple sold the property just a year and a half later for $9,000,000 and the all-knowing Lucy Spillerguts whispered in Your Mama's ear that the 6 bedroom and 5.5 pooper beauty was bought by a handsome young tech tycoon with a big toothy smile.

The Weinbergs have not limited their property flipping to the west coast. Once again sorting out the property records was like untying a Gordian Knot but as best as we can sort and suss out from records and previous reports, in 2004 the Weinbergs paid $540,000 for a parlor floor 1 bedroom and 1 pooper condo apartment in a tiny townhouse at 10 Bedford Street in New York City's once boho now swank West Village neighborhood. The previous year they had forked over $1,500,000 for the 3-story carriage house with 2 bedrooms and 2 poopers located behind the teeny townhouse. The two units are not physically adjacent and one must traverse an exterior walkway that overlooks a private garden in order to get from one to the other. That sounds like real bother until Your Mama realizes that it's a lovely and advantageous set up for guests...give them their own apartment and you'll never have to hear them or smell them, iffin you know what we're sayin'. Sales records are, once gain, fuzzy, but there are reports that indicate the Weinbergs sold the two units together in the fall of 2005 for $2,450,000. Although we can't be sure, Your Mama suspects the buyer was a celebrity or some other high profile person because the property is owned through a trust connected to an Los Angeles attorney known to do a lot of business with the famous folk.

Phew! Are the children following along?

Now than, let's get back now to the Hollywood Hills house that Mister and Missus Weinberg recently hoisted on to the open market with an asking price of $3,399,000, shall we?

The Weinbergs bought the Runyon Canyon adjacent property in February of 2009 from director Stephen Gyllenhaal (Numb3rs, Army Wives and etc.) and screenwriter Naomi Foner (Bee Season, Running on Empty and etc.) who at the time were engaged in a bitter and ugly dee-vorce. Mister Gyllenhaal and Miz Foner are, of course, the parents of Oscar nominated actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Your Mama first discussed the 5 bedroom and 3 pooper property–of which we were and still are quite smitten–way back in the Dark Ages of June 2007 when Mister Gyllenhaal and Miz Foner quietly put the property on the market as a rental with a monthly asking price of $20,000.

The second time we discussed and gushed over the elder Gyllenhaal's former marital home was in February of 2008 after they'd heaved the 2,563 square foot on to the sales market with a now ridiculous sounding asking price of $4,200,000.

The third time Your Mama poured over the pictures of the pretty property was in March of 2009, shortly after the Weinbergs took the property off the hands of the warring Gyllenhaals for $2,888,000, a large number by any standard but far, far, far less than the original asking price of $4,200,000.

Your Mama spent a few minutes flicking and clicking the beads on our bejeweled abacus and figured out that the current asking price is a smidgen over 17% what the Weinbergs paid for the property just 18 months ago. We expect that some of the children–not to mention all the Chicken Littles looking for a double dip in an already sagging economy–will surely have something to say about that desired double digit increase in value during the rough real estate patch of the last few years.

Since Your Mama has gone on and on (and on some more) about this particular bit of architectural pretty, it seems like a snooze and a serious beat down of a dead horse to once again talk on the architecture and day-core. If y'all want to know what we think read our previous discussions. What we will say, however, is that we think it's a real damn shame that the Weinbergs ripped out some of the xeriscaping done up by the soo-blime Jay Griffith and replaced it with water sucking lawn.

Yes, puppies, we know unnaturally green lawns are pretty and popular amongst Angelenos and other southern Californians who like to pretend they don't live in a damn desert. However, since water in southern California is a precious commodity in ever shrinking supply and Your Mama predicts it won't be too long before a green lawn is a luxury affordable only to the financially favored, we feel it would have been prudent not to mention environmentally responsible just just leave the drought tolerant landscaping in place. Your Mama will probably take a verbal knife for saying that from all the many folks who seem to think that being an American means having the capital "G" God given right to use (and over-use) natural resources in any quantity and manner they see fit. But that's cool. We'll just have to wait and see who gets to say, "We told you so" when it costs 2 bucks just to flush your damn terlit, won't we?

Anyhoo, let's jump down off of that soap box which is really another beef for another place and back to the Weinberg's real estate matter at hand. Of course Your Mama don't know a candle from a cookie jar but we presume that the Weinbergs have opted to sell their California crib because after Conan O'Brien was deposed from The Tonight Show in an ugly but extremely lucrative coup, Mister Weinberg no longer has a need for a full time residence in Los Angeles. Then again, if real estate history were to repeat itself, Mister and Missus Weinberg are already out hunting for a new house in Los Angeles they can buy and flip back on the market 18 months from now.

Despite their real estate whirlwind in California and irrespective of whether they buy another west coast outpost or not, there is no question that the Weinberg's primary residence remains, as mentioned above, a 34+ acre spread in Red Bank NJ that happens to be just a hop, skip, and a stumble from the waterfront compound of pop-rock superstar Jon Bon Jovi.

Adam Carolla Lists Starter House In Los Angeles

SELLER: Adam Carolla
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,395,000
SIZE: 2,281 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.75 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: He may have rather stoopidly and controversially called Hawaiians "retarded" and "the world's dumbest people," but, children, comedian, ack-tor, and radio personality Adam Carolla is all kinds of rich anyways. Beehawtcha may have pissed off an entire state–not to mention an entire country–but he is none the less laugh, laugh, laughing all the way to the damn bank.

Back in 1996, not long after pairing up with publicity seeking celebrity rehabber Dr. Drew Pinsky on the long running Lovelines radio program, Mister Carolla took some of his earnings and purchased himself a starter located house high above Beachwood Canyon in Los Angeles, CA. While Mister Carolla and his family have long since moved on to bigger and better digs, the Beachwood Canyon crib remained the property in his portfolio. However, the talk radio titan* has, apparently, decided to lighten his real estate load because he recently put the property on the market with an asking price of $1,395,000.

*Okay, maybe Mister Carolla isn't really a "titan" of talk radio in like that poser Howard Stern who caters to the lowest of lowbrow taste but hobnobs with the hoity toity in the Hamptons, but he's still enormously successful.

Mister Carolla, a bizzy entertainment business beaver if there ever was one, got his big radio break on Jimmy Kimmel's erstwhile radio program Kevin and Bean. He went on to yakkety yak for 10 years on the radio with Dr. Pinsky, co-hosted a popular sketch comedy program called The Man Show with his new b.f.f. Jimmy Kimmel, and created and performed on the tee-vee program Crank Yankers on which scary looking puppets made crank calls to unsuspecting victims. In 2005, after leaving Lovelines, he started up his own eponymous radio program. In 2009 the show was converted to a wildly successful 5-day a week podcast that quickly became the most downloaded podcast on the iTunes. He's also done voice over work (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Family Guy) and in 2008 he appeared on that way past its prime program Dancing With the Stars on which he mamboed and tangoed but was ultimately done in by the Paso Doble.

Property records show that Mister Carolla bought his Beachwood Canyon aerie in November of 1996 for $350,000. Lo-ward have mercy buttons, remember when y'all could buy a nice if modest house in a good part of Los Angeles for well under half a million smackers? Anyhoo, property records show the fully renovated French Normandy style residence was built in 1924 and listing information indicates it is an original Hollywoodland home.

Hollywoodland, for those not schooled on the history of the Los Angeles real estate world, is the architecturally diverse subdivision situated in the peaks and valleys in the rugged and scrubby hills above Hollywood. The now iconic Hollywood sign, which originally read "Hollywoodland" and was covered in flashing light bulbs, was erected in the 1920s as an advertisement to attract arty-farty and urbane home buyers to the development. While not nearly as posh or as expensive as Beverly Hills or Bel Air, Beachwood Canyon remains one of Los Angeles' most Los Angeles of neighborhoods, iffin that makes any sense.

Mister Carolla's crib, according to listing information, measures 2,281 square feet and contains 3 bedrooms and 3 poopers. The house sits atop a towering stone rampart and is accessed via a stone staircase that wraps around the rampart and leads up to a gated and hedged yard. Even more stair climbing is required to haul yer hiney up to the front door.

While it would most certainly be lovely to live on a private promontory high above the street, our imperious house gurl Svetlana would never permit Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter to live in a situation that would force her to perspire just from dragging the damn groceries up from the street to the kitchen. If there was some sort of dumbwaiter or funicular to carry the comestibles up to the house from the street she might relent. But even then probably not since she's still have to get her not interested in exercising at all for any reason self up the stairs.

Anyhoo, the interior spaces of Mister Carolla's former home include a step-down living room with a high-beamed ceiling, hardwood floors, fireplace, wet bar, and a tall arched window with views of the glittering lights of Tinseltown. There is also a den/family room with a second fireplace and built in entertainment center, and an eat-in kitchen all done over with a built in boo-fay and plate rack, white raised panel cabinetry, and high grade stainless steel appliances including a 4-burner baby Viking range. The master bedroom, according to listing information, has a third fireplace and, we presume, a private pooper.

Listing information indicates that the entire house was renovated and retrofitted in 1997 with a new HVAC system, foundation bolting, slate roof, electrical and plumbing upgrades and a beefed up security system.

The yard wraps around the house and offers a few small but flat lawn areas, a flagstone terrace with built in barbecue pit–or whatever that brick thing is–and an awning shaded patio that leads to a small deck with city views where the former traffic school instructor and staunch atheist sunk a hot tub and probably spent many-a-evening staring at the starry heavens. The children will note the gigantic flag pole prominently installed in the front yard. Although he may not believe in capital "G" god like most Americans still do, Mister Carolla is still a patriotic person. This is, after all, America, land of the free, and one need not believe in Jesus to be a good American.

Mister Carolla currently lives in a walled and gated property high atop the Hollywood Hills that he purchased in April of 2003 for $1,630,000. The Spanish style house measures 5,345 square foot house with 3 bedrooms and 6 poopers. Your Mama happens to know that, like at his former home in Beachwood Canyon, Mister Carolla flies the American–and the I-talian–flag at his current crib.

In March of 2007, according to property records, Mister and Missus Carolla paid $3,600,000 to purchase a contemporary ranch house in the Point Dume area of Malibu. As it turns out, the Carolla couple's beach house in the Bu, which has 4 bedroom and 3 poopers in the main house and another bedroom and pooper in the detached guest house, is currently for lease for July and/or August at $10,000 per month.

photos from Teles Properties listing

Glee's Matthew Morrison Gets New Digs

BUYER: Matthew Morrison
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,193,000
SIZE: 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday, while settin' out on our newly stained black back deck on our newly purchased, winter white Brown Jordon patio set, Your Mama received an unexpected but welcomed covert communique from the bizzy boys over at Celebrity Address Aerial who whispered in our big ol' ear that Broadway baby turned toothy television star Matthew Morrison and his six pack abs recently purchased a new pad in Los Angeles, CA.

Mister Morrison, who appeared on last night's 2010 Tony Awards program singing his little heart out, got his start in the bizness of show hoofin' it in a number of big Broadway musicals including Footloose, The Rocky Horror Show, and Hairspray. The talented triple threat received a Tony nomination for his 2005 role in The Light in the Piazza and just before donning his teacher duds for his starring and Golden Globe nominated role as Spanish teacher/show choir instructor Will Shuester on Glee–hands down the gayest show currently on the boob-toob–he appeared shirtless in yet another Broadway revival of South Pacific.

But it hasn't all been entertainment hearts and flowers for Mister Morrison who paid his dues in the early 2000s when he made the mistake of joining up with the hare brained boy band LMNT–that's pronounced "element" in case any of the children care–and in 2006 he made another professional bungle when he made a blessedly brief dash through the high camp soap story As the World Turns. All of which, it must be said, add up to make Mister Morrison seem a little light in the loafers. However, and although it ain't no body's bidness but his own, Mister Morrison would like folks to know that despite, his firm, gay porn star body, manicured chest hair, generously gelled coiffure, predilection for showgirl head dresses and jazz hands, and his love of singing show tunes and obvious talent for twinkle toeing it on stage, he is not a homosexual. Okaaay?

Anyhoo, let's get back to the real estate matter at hand. According to property records, in early March of 2010 Mister Morrison paid $1,193,000 to purchase a newly renovated residence in a somewhat out of the way and essentially unglamorous section of the Hollywood Hills. The charming and modest Monterey Colonial, built in 1941, sits down a long, gated and circular driveway on a property that encompasses 11 separate, itty-bitty lots that total over an acre. The nicely tucked away property should afford Mister Morrison all the privacy he wants and requires should he ever be inclined to garden in the nood or wash his car in a barely there, booty hugging bikini bathing suit. The traditional crisp, white brick and clapboard exterior is set off by deep forest green trim work. The bland landscaping is not doing the house any favors and Your Mama recommends Mister Morrison rip it all out and replace it with something a bit more xeriscape-y or desert appropriate because we think these Monterey Colonials looks so nice with spikey and cactus-y plants.

The front door opens directly into the "formal" living room that features tumbled stone tile flooring, white walls, and a brick fireplace flanked by some not particularly attractive built-in cabinets. Listing information indicates there is a dining room as well as a family room that Staging Lady in a Pink Toyota set it up as a family room with a big, stain hiding chocolate brown velvet sectional sofa. Beyond the family room and through a wide doorway, a bright, well-equipped kitchen has raised panel cabinetry–cream colored on the wall side, ebony on the island–white counter tops, vaulted and sky-lit ceiling with exposed beams, high grade appliances, a breakfast bar, and a series of long, narrow windows that wrap around the front of the house and look out on the motor court and detached two-car garage. The children will notice that at the peak of the vaulted ceiling someone has installed track lighting. Who does that? Who installs track lighting in a newly renovated house? Seriously, is this 1988? Your Mama expects Mister Morrison will request his nice, gay decorator to replace the track lighting with something more appropriate.

Upstairs, according to listing information, are two large bedrooms, each with chestnut colored hardwood flooring and each with a private pooper. One bedroom has a fireplace and both, as best as Your Mama can tell, open on to the narrow balcony that runs along the front of the second floor, a perfect place to greet the rising sun of the morning or to smoke a post-coital cigarette.

Additional amenities of Mister Morrison's modest if not inexpensive new nest include a powder pooper, indoor laundry facilities, central heat and air, a "bowling green" sized lawn at the front of the house and what appears to be an old-school built in barbecue in the small courtyard area between the garage and the house. And too, let's not forget that long, long, long driveway down which Mister Morrison can practice his shuffles, slides, spins and tap dancing moves.